Sosie Bacon knew going into Smile that she would not be the Final Girl, as the Smile movie ending explained that there were no happy endings in this story. She even said she was glad the movie didn't have a happy ending (via THR).
The ending of the film is particularly sad since it proves that as soon as Joel agrees to help Rose figure out what's happening, he isn't able to extract himself from her, and he will never break free.
So, the entity uses Rose's body to pour gasoline all over the psychiatrist, lighting a match just as Joel comes through the door. Rose's body is smiling while she burns away, and we can see in Joel's eyes he will be scarred for life by that disturbing suicide.
Joel arrives in time to see Rose pouring gasoline on herself and then lighting a match. The chilling final shot of Smile zooms into Joel's eye as he watches her burning to death. With Rose dying in a horrifying way, it continues the cycle and secures Joel as its next victim.
The ending of the movie Smile reveals that Rose defeating and heading to Joel's place was all a hallucination. In reality, she's still in her childhood home and gets consumed by the entity. Joel tracks Rose and shows up at the house only to witness her burn herself to death, passing the curse on to him.
Even though Rose did everything she was supposed to do — that we're supposed to do to process our own trauma — the monster still won. The cycle will continue. Smile writer-director Parker Finn characterizes the two endings of his film as an attempt to get ahead of audiences' expectations.
Smile 2 has been confirmed by Paramount following the runaway success of the first Smile film, which was released back in September 2022. A sequel to Smile has been confirmed following the incredible success of the first movie.
Fully possessed by the demon, Rose douses herself in gasoline and sets herself on fire — just as the real Joel bursts inside her home and witnesses her death, becoming the next victim.
As Joel walks in, Rose is wearing that familiar creepy smile and has covered herself in gasoline – about to light a match. So no, Rose does not survive in Smile and even worse, it seems the curse has found a way to keep itself going, with Joel now presumably set to be its next victim.
[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Smile.] The smile curse operates in a fairly consistent fashion throughout the film. One infected person is consumed, the entity forces them to take their own life and then the witness becomes cursed. But, what if multiple people witness that death?
Then, in the very last sequence, the demon removes its face to reveal its true appearance — a pale, lifeless entity with a seemingly endless grin. When the creature literally crawls inside Rose and completely takes her over, we're led to believe that this may have actually happened.
The Smile demon's true form is the stuff that nightmares are made of. When Rose finally sees it at the end of the movie, she is stunned into silence. The entity in Smile is able to shapeshift and become any person that it wants to.
The film sustains a strong sense of foreboding and threat throughout, with central themes of trauma and death. There are frequent jump scares and some very strong violence. This movie is incredibly scary and disturbing at the same time.
Rose begins experiencing hallucinations induced by the demon. Shortly after, she has trouble finding her cat, Mustache, and its tragic fate is revealed during her nephew's birthday party. The boy opens Rose's present to discover her cat's dead body.
Trevor. Trevor, Rose's fiancé, is warm and supportive, defending her against Holly and Greg when they criticize her job choice and consoling her when she comes home distraught after Laura's apparent suicide.
Smile clearly wants the audience to see the connection between Rose's curse and mental illness. Throughout the movie, characters use therapy buzzwords and often suggest that Rose's mental state is a result of her genetics and past trauma.
Rose dies in Smile's ending because she was only able to overpower the entity once. She had enough fight in her to take on the gangly demonic monstrosity and even appeared to kill it, shattering a lantern over its head.
With a shard of a broken plant pot, the monster controlling Laura proceeds to cut open her neck open, killing herself in the process right in front of Rose, as her body falls still smiling. As the monster who haunted her is now haunting Rose.
The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong violent content and grisly images, and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kisses and hugs, many scenes of gruesome suicides and attempted murders including a man gutting himself with garden sheers, a woman setting herself on fire and a woman ...
She pours it on herself and lights a match. After spending our time seeing things from Rose's perspective, often in uncomfortably closeup shots, we see her final moments through Joel's eyes, who can't look away despite his horror. The curse has now been passed on to him.
The Smile Entity as it strangles Rose, and its most infamous quote. You can't escape your own mind, Rose. The Smile Entity, also called The Monstrosity or simply The Smile Demon, is the main antagonist of the 2020 horror short film Laura Hasn't Slept, as well as its 2022 film adaptation/sequel Smile.
Smile's messy treatment of mental illness and trauma throughout one hour fifty-five minutes seems to be intentional and is bound to leave you feeling uncomfortable. The theme of inheriting mental illness and walking down a path that you have lived dreading all your life is poignant.
